Active Listening

Winston Churchill said, "Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen".

The real estate industry is a service industry, and service is something that depends strictly on good communication. The more transparent, clear, and active communication is, the more assertive and effective it becomes.

We are surrounded by a lot of noise and distractions as it is the age of the internet and technology. Although we have tremendous communication platforms that help us connect and reconnect, there is nothing that can replace a face-to-face conversation with another person.

We talk a lot about being present "here and now", but it is not that simple and requires discipline and practice. I remember about five years ago when I quit my previous job and decided to practice meditation. It took me at least 4 months to turn off my mind's rumblings and be able to concentrate and finally meditate. The accumulation of work and situations in my personal life made it impossible to quiet my mind. But since achieving this, I value the concept of "mindfulness" even more and although honestly, there are still times when I get distracted, I am able to focus my mind and actively listen.

In our transactions, conversations, negotiations, in short, in all our interpersonal interactions, it is extremely important to know how to listen more than to talk. They say that this is why we have two ears and only one mouth.

Actively listening to others is an asset because when we give them our full attention, we are valuing and respecting their time. Some techniques that help us actively listen include looking them in the eyes, nodding when we agree, paraphrasing what we understand from the conversation, sometimes repeating what the other person says to hear it again and to note important and crucial ideas in the conversation.

From conversations come ideas, from ideas come interesting projects. Give yourself the opportunity to be more present in your daily personal interactions and you will see great results.

This was one of the reasons I chose the name Lifestyle Designers to represent me in the industry. Stay tuned for my next article where I'll tell you about some of the other reasons.